That's a far cry from a
separate report by the New York Federal Reserve in March, which
declared families had regained a whopping 91% of their
losses.

Why the big
discrepency?

Turns out the New York Fed
hadn't accounted for two major factors: population growth (U.S.
households have grown by nearly 4 million since the recession)
and inflation.

When St. Louis Fed researchers took another look, they
found U.S. households accumulated net worth totaling
$66 trillion at the end of last year, down 55 percent from the
peak in 2007 when adjusted for inflation and population
growth.

The report found that "younger, less-educated and
African-American and Hispanic families lost the most." These
demographics suffered for various reasons, including high levels
of debt, exposure to hard-hit occupations like construction, high
concentrations of wealth in housing — which got destroyed in the
crash.

Although household have
been rebuilding their savings and paying down their debts in
recent years, the recovery has been far from evenly
distributed since it was largely tied to stocks.

From the report:

Of the total recovery of $14.7 trillion between the first quarter
of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2012, $9.1 trillion, or 62
percent, of the gain was due to higher stock-market wealth. Stock
wealth is unevenly held, with the vast majority of stocks owned
by a relatively small number of wealthy families. Thus, most
families have recovered much less than the average amount.

Therefore, the
report states, any conclusion that "the financial damage of
the crisis and recession largely has been repaired is not
justified.”

A home that was damaged by
Hurricane Sandy, is seen in Union Beach, New Jersey November 12,
2012.REUTERS/Eric
Thayer